by Emerson Rose
“I don’t know.” I am not a crier at all. I pride myself on holding my shit together in front of people. So when I feel hot tears pooling in my eyes, I’m surprised. And when those tears fall down my face onto Ridge’s neck, I’m startled.
“Angel, are you,” he lifts me up, and I look away embarrassed of my tears. This is stupid. I just met the man yesterday, and now I’m blubbering in his bed about leaving him. “Are you crying? Oh, don’t, I didn’t mean to upset you.” He folds me into his arms and rolls me to the side facing him.
I wipe the tears away and bite my lip hard to keep any more from coming. “You didn’t upset me. The situation is upsetting. This is all so intense. I’ve never felt this way before.”
He brushes the damp hair off of my face and tucks it behind my ear before cupping my cheek in his strong hand. I turn to kiss his palm, and he groans. “I will figure this out. I’ll find a way for us to continue getting to know each other, I promise.” I nod and cuddle closer. His tone is no nonsense and confident, but I don’t see any way for this to work. I live in New York, David is there, my job is there, and Ridge’s private, under-the-radar life is here in Montana. He hates the city, and I’m bound to it. We’re going to have to enjoy what time we have together before I go home and leave it at that.
“But for right now, we need a bath. I’ll be right back.” He slips out of bed, and I watch his perfect ass and muscular back walk away disappearing into the bathroom. I want him again already—how is that possible? He just made love to me for two hours straight, rubbing, stroking, licking, sucking, and caressing every single part of me until I felt like I’d spontaneously combust. How can I possibly want more?
I don’t know, but I do.
I hear the water running and Ridge shuffling around for a few minutes before he returns. I start to get out of bed, but he scoops me up before my feet hit the ground. He carries me like I weigh nothing into the bathroom and places me in the filling tub.
I watch him move around the room placing towels on a bench next to the foot of the tub and sprinkling bath salts in the water. When there is enough water in the tub, he shuts off the faucet and smiles a small, seductive smile before sliding in behind me.
“I could kidnap you and hold you prisoner in my penthouse forever.”
“That’s your solution?” I ask sliding my hands down his muscular thighs.
“I could hire a witch to cast a spell on you making you forget your past.”
“My brother would be an orphan.”
“True. Okay, how about this? I could fly him out here, explain that you’re suffering from amnesia after the witch makes you forget your past, and tell him I have to take care of you forever, so he will be moving to Montana.”
“If I forget my past, I forget you.”
“Stop being so difficult. I’ll make sure you remember everything from last night until now.”
“My brother won’t want to live in Montana, and what about my job?”
He sighs and slips his hands around to cup my breasts. “You don’t think he would like Montana?”
It’s hard to concentrate on his fantasy remedies for our distance problem when he’s caressing my breasts and rolling my nipples in his fingers.
“He’s uh, he’s a city boy. That’s the only life he knows, and his friends are all there.” I cover his hands with mine. “I can’t think when you’re doing that.”
I feel a rumble in his chest when he chuckles behind me. “That’s the idea, angel.”
“Do you want to work on our problem or do other things?”
“Are you kidding?”
“No.”
“Let’s do other things. Although, working on our problem could lead to us doing other things in the future.”
“Hmm, instant or delayed gratification? Decisions, decisions.”
“I’m pretty sure we can do both. First, I’m going to take you from behind in this tub and then we are going to get out, and I’ll bend you over in the shower over there.” He points to the stone shower a few feet away. “And lick you until you cum at least twice, maybe three more times. Then you’re going to kneel down and suck me off, and we will have dinner in bed while I think of more things to instantly gratify us. All the while, in the back of my mind, I will be figuring out what to do about the future.”
“That’s quite the elaborate plan, but I like it.”
“I thought you would.”
“So when do we start?”
“Right…” He slides his hands under my ass lifting me up while I grab the sides of the tub. “Now.” One hand leaves my ass and guides his thick hard cock to my entrance, and he lowers me down until he’s buried deep. I grip the sides of the tub, and he moves me up and down occasionally stopping to slip his hand around and stroke my clit until I’m there again. Breathless and panting, we cum together, our cries and moans echoing off the walls.
The rest of the evening goes as planned. When we fall onto the mattress hours later, I am so sated and exhausted I set three alarms to wake me in the morning for the photo shoot.
Instant gratification was a total success.
Delayed gratification plans, not so much.
11
Ridge
Long Distance Relationship
I knock on Ash’s office door for our morning meeting, and he calls me in. We do this every day, but today feels different. Everything feels different since I met Allison. The world is a little brighter, and my heart beats a little faster because of her.
“Well, don’t you look happy this morning. I take it things with Allison are going well?”
I can’t help but smile, and I’m not one who smiles often.
“Oh my God, she’s the one, isn’t she? You’re fucking smiling. Do you know I could probably count on one hand how many times I’ve seen you smile in the past five years? And you’ve never smiled like that.”
“Stop. Yes, things are good, great actually. She’s amazing. Thank you for pushing us together.”
“I didn’t have to do much, and Stella was the one with the master plan to send her up with your dinner the other night. So tell me about her.”
“She’s amazing, beautiful, smart, and honest. The chemistry between us is off the charts. She’s perfect. Except for one very important thing—she lives in New York, and I live here.”
I sit in the chair on the other side of Ash’s desk facing him and close my eyes pinching my nose at the bridge. The frustration of trying to figure out what to do about this problem is getting to me.
“Wow, you do have feelings for her, don’t you?”
I lift my head and look at him wearily. “Yes, lots of them… big, giant, powerful feelings that I have no idea what to do with.”
“You don’t have to do anything. Get to know her, keep in touch, travel back and forth to visit each other, Skype, FaceTime. There are a million ways to have a long- distance relationship.”
“That’s just it. I don’t want this to be long distance. I want to see what this can be, and we can’t do that thousands of miles away from each other.”
“What about doing the long-distance thing for a while and then deciding what’s next?”
“You’re right. We don’t have to rush anything. We just met. I mean all of these feelings could be the newness and excitement. Why have we been trying so damn hard to figure out what to do next?”
“You’ve talked about it?”
“Yes. Hell, yes.”
“Y’all are moving fast on this, huh?”
Ash’s face is full of concern. “Too fast?”
“Maybe. Hell, I’m not the one to ask. I fell in love with Stella the first time I laid eyes on her, and I married and knocked her up a couple of months later.”
“I think that just goes to show you know what you want when you see it, and you go after it.”
“Then go after her.”
“I still don’t know what the hell I’m doing but thanks for the pep talk anyway.”
“No problem. If y
ou want, I can tell the plows to do all the neighbors before us, that’ll give you an extra day or two together,” he says with a smile and a wink.
“Thanks, but she has a little brother to get home to. I can’t stall her when she has responsibilities like that.”
“That’s right. She told me she’s raising her brother. How do you feel about that?”
I shrug. “Fine, I guess. Why?”
“I don’t know. I guess I thought you didn’t want kids.”
“He’s hardly a kid. He’s sixteen. Two more years, and he’ll be off to college.”
“What about Allison? She’s a lot younger than you. Does she want kids?”
“I don’t know. I just met her two days ago.”
Ash sits back in his chair and steeples his fingers in front of him the way he does when he’s proven a point. “Okay, I get it. This is going too fast. We need to slow down and get to know each other better before we make drastic plans for the future.”
“Exactly. Well, I’m glad we got that all figured out,” he says with a touch of sarcasm. We haven’t figured anything out.
“Yeah, let’s talk about something I can control like your schedule.”
After our meeting, Ash meets with Allison and her crew in the sunroom to start the photo shoot, and I check in on Stella and Cannon.
“Good morning, Ridge,” she greets me at the door of her office all smiles and happiness. She’s vibrating with joy, and I feel as though she may hug me. I’m not much of a hugger, but if she tried, I wouldn’t stop her.
“Morning,” I say hesitating outside her door until she walks away from me to sit down at her desk. I haven’t known a lot of pregnant women in my life, but of the few I have, she is the most beautiful. Pregnancy suits her well.
“Ridge!” Cannon yells as he runs across the room and barrels into my knees at full force. “Hey there, enthusiastic as usual, I see,” I say, patting him on the head. Ash was right to wonder about me having kids. I’ve never been comfortable around them. I don’t dislike babies and children. I’ve just never had much exposure to them, other than Cannon, and he was a lot to handle until Stella came into our lives and tamed him as much as he can be tamed.
“Are we going to play in the snow again today? Please, please,” he says with praying hands.
Stella cuts in, “Not today, bud. We have lots of studying to do, and you were going to help me in the baby’s nursery, remember?”
His face lights up like a thousand-watt bulb. “Yes! I get to help decorate the baby’s room!”
I look at Stella and mouth thank you over Cannon’s head. I can’t do another day in the snow. One was enough. At least it’s stopped falling, and the sun is out. The house is positively glowing from the sun reflecting off all of the freshly fallen snow. It’s a drastic contrast to the gloomy gray blanket we’ve been living under since it started. The funny thing is, I hardly noticed. I’ve been walking around on a cloud since Allison and I started talking.
“That’s great, Cannon. You’re excited for your baby brother or sister, aren’t you?”
“I am, I can’t wait to see her. It’s a girl, you know. I’m gonna name her Lydia like Lydia, the pig in the cartoon.”
I have no idea who Lydia the pig is, and I also didn’t know they were having a girl. I thought Ash and Stella were going to wait until the baby was born to find out the sex. I look up at Stella who is shaking her head and smiling.
“He insists it’s a girl. We don’t know.”
“Ah, I see. I’m sure you’ll love him or her no matter what.”
“Yeah, but it’s a girl.”
“Okay, okay, it’s a girl. I believe you,” I say chuckling at his stubbornness. “I just wanted to be sure you didn’t need anything this morning.”
“No, not so far anyway.” She leans forward, as far as her belly will allow, and rests her forearms on her desk. “Ridge, thank you for being so attentive. I know it’s not your job to take care of Cannon and me. This has been a crazy year, and Ash and I appreciate your help more than we can express.”
“It’s nothing. You and Cannon are part of my job as my job is to keep this house and Ash’s life running smooth and safe.”
She sits back taking a deep breath as if the position she was sitting in was suffocating her. “Thank you for that,” she says placing her hands on her round belly.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, yes, just Braxton Hicks contractions, nothing to worry about.”
Usually, I would leave at this point, but something about Stella’s posture is making me uneasy. “You’re sure? I can stay for a while if you like.”
She waves her hand dismissively. “No, I’m perfectly fine. Go, work, organize, secure the house. I’m good.”
“Okay, I have my phone if you need me, and Ash and Allison are in the sunroom this morning doing the photo shoot.”
“Got it, thanks, now go. I have a test to study for and morning lessons for Cannon.” Cannon is building with Legos in his corner of her office. He groans and rolls his eyes when she mentions lessons. “You stop with the eye rolling, mister. You love your lessons, and you know it.”
“Okay, I’ll leave you to it then.”
Stella waves, and I swear there is the hint of a grimace on her face. I leave her door open half way and go straight to the sunroom to talk to Ash. It would be just like Stella to hide that she’s in labor. She doesn’t like to put anybody out by asking for help, and she’s hell bent on wrapping up her classes before the baby’s born.
In the sunroom, Ash is positioned on a couch reading a newspaper with a crew of twelve people bustling around trying to make him look natural in the most unnatural ways—makeup, clothes that he would never wear, and an actual newspaper. Who reads a newspaper anymore? Not Ash, I can tell you that.
I hang back and wait until Allison is finished with Ash’s current pose and clear my throat to get his attention. “Ash, could I see you for a moment?” He nods and joins me at the door immediately. Allison flashes me a worried look.
“I’m sorry to interrupt.”
“No, it’s fine, what’s wrong?” Ash knows I wouldn’t interrupt if it weren’t important.
“It could be nothing, but when I checked on Stella and Cannon she seemed to be… uncomfortable.”
“Uncomfortable how? She’s nine months pregnant. She’s always uncomfortable.”
“I don’t know the first thing about labor, and as I said I could be way off, but I think she grimaced a couple of times when I was talking to her. She says she has Braxton Hicks contractions. It’s not my place, but since the roads are still unplowed, and she’s so close to her due date, I thought you should know.”
“No, you did the right thing, thank you. Stella’s stubborn. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s trying to hold off telling me until she’s got her homework done and the photo shoot is over.”
“I agree that’s why I’m here. I can call and find out how long until the roads are cleared if you want.”
“Yes, and see about getting the chopper ready. We might have to fly out or fly her doctor in depending on how long she’s been hiding this from me. Damn it, why didn’t I notice?”
“I could have read the situation wrong. You should go talk to her and see for yourself.”
“Okay, will you tell Allison I’ll be right back?”
“Sure.”
Ash hurries out, and Allison’s eyes go big and round as she approaches me.
“What’s going on? We’ve only done one pose.”
“It might be nothing. He said to tell you he’d be right back.”
She shifts her big camera from one hand to the other. “What might be nothing?”
“Stella’s having Braxton Hicks contractions. He’s checking to make sure she’s not actually in labor.”
“Oh no, now? But, we can’t get out, where will she deliver?”
“We don’t even know if it’s labor. I could be way off base. I’ve never seen a woman in labor before.”
“You spend a lot of time with her. If you think she’s in pain, she probably is. I don’t think labor is that hard to spot.” No sooner do those words leave her lips when we hear Stella scream.
Both of us sprint through the house to find Stella on the floor next to her desk in a puddle of water panting through a real contraction. Cannon is standing next to his dad, who is kneeling at her side, frowning, and gripping Ash’s shoulder.
“That’s no Braxton Hicks contraction. Her water broke, she’s having the baby,” Allison says quietly to me.
Ash looks up panic stricken. “I don’t think we have time for a doctor. She says she needs to push.”
“I’ll call her doctor and put her on the speaker to help you.” I cross the room to her desk and dial the OB’s phone number I’ve had memorized for months. “Allison, grab her a pillow and ask Olivia for a garbage bag to put under her and some blankets.”
“Which one is Olivia?”
“Petite blonde. She should be in the kitchen.”
A receptionist answers the phone. “I need you to get Dr. Jamison on the phone immediately, it’s an emergency.”
“If it’s an emergency, sir, you need to hang up and call 911 right away.”
“This is Ashton Pride’s personal assistant, and his wife is in labor about to deliver her baby on the floor of her office. The ranch is snowed in. No ambulance can make it in. Put the doctor on the phone now.”
“Hold just a moment, please.”
Stella is panting and blowing, Allison is tucking a pillow under her head, and Ash is taking her pants off. This is happening. I motion to Allison to take Cannon with her to the kitchen to find Olivia. On their way out, several members of her crew meet her at the door asking if everything is all right. She doesn’t stop to explain but waves to follow her.
Someone picks up the phone line. “This is Dr. Jamison, can I help you?”
“Yes, Stella Pride is in labor at home, and we need your help to deliver the baby, there isn’t time to get her to a hospital. I’m putting you on speaker.” I press the speaker button, and the doctor begins asking Ash questions. He only answers one before Stella grabs his arm digging her nails into his flesh and screams, “It’s coming!”
